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McNamar, Murphy to hold senior roundtable in Morris Wednesday

House Majority Leader Erin Murphy and State Representative Jay McNamar (DFL-Elbow Lake) will hold a roundtable discussion with seniors at West Wind Village at 2 p.m., Wednesday, July 17 to highlight new legislation that will positively impact Minnesota seniors and nursing home workers.

The Minnesota Legislature addressed several issues that will greatly affect seniors across the state. After $1 billion in cuts to the Health and Human Services budget during the last biennium, the new budget provides a 5 percent increase for nursing home workers and a 1 percent increase for long term care workers for the first time in four years.

Due to a rise in cases of fraud that target Minnesota seniors, the Legislature took action to increase punishments for electronic transfer scams and require stricter background checks for legal guardians. The Legislature also expanded the renter's credit and enacted a new sick leave for family members law, which lets family members use their existing sick leave to care for a parent. In order to help senior voters have greater access to the polls on Election Day, the state will now allow "no excuse" absentee voting.